Land Use Applications & Litigation

Our Land Use Team represents private and public sector clients in all facets of land development. Our clients include some of the nation’s leading homebuilders, office and commercial developers, redevelopers, financial institutions, state and local redevelopment authorities, public transportation authorities, municipalities and local boards, and other public and private entities seeking to navigate land use regulatory issues.
 
We are also proud to serve as Land Use Counsel to the New Jersey Builders Association, representing the NJBA on a variety of legislative, regulatory, and litigation matters affecting the industry.
 
Clients count on our Land Use Team to create solutions for many of the toughest challenges they face. Our extensive experience enables us to present a number of pragmatic options. Where we can, we work to avoid litigation. But when litigation is our clients’ only or best alternative, we provide aggressive, cost-effective advocacy at both the trial and appellate levels, before our state courts and the federal courts.

Land use disputes rarely stay simple. They often require intensive work on several fronts at once, under significant time pressure, and across multiple parties, issues, and jurisdictions. Our litigators are equipped with the resources and trial experience to handle exactly that. Working in the same interdisciplinary fashion that defines the firm, our Land Use Team draws on colleagues across Real Estate, Corporate & Business, Banking & Secured Transactions, Environmental, Tax, and other practice groups to build the strongest possible case.
 
In federal and state trial and appellate courts, and before administrative boards, government agencies, and alternative dispute tribunals, we combine deep resources with experienced trial lawyers. Most important, we understand the business needs behind every case and the importance of the bottom line, and we develop cost-effective strategies designed to achieve our clients’ goals.

Our Land Use Team attorneys collectively bring decades of experience to the table, from the regulatory analysis of land at the outset, to the acquisition of all necessary permits and approvals, along with the litigation that often becomes necessary in today’s anti-growth atmosphere. The team includes former state officials and other recognized leaders in land use law, among them two former chairs of the Land Use Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association and others who have served on its Board of Directors.
 
The Land Use Team is the legacy of firm founder Henry Hill, who pioneered work in the Mount Laurel doctrine, an area of law that has affected development throughout much of New Jersey for more than a quarter of a century. Over the years, our team has built a reputation for uncommon devotion to the land use causes of our clients.

Our Pennsylvania Land Use Practice Group has deep and diverse experience in land use and municipal law, giving developers and property owners the guidance and support they need to work their way through the system. Because we have written and enforced zoning ordinances, subdivision and land development ordinances, and other municipal codes, we understand how those ordinances work, how they should be interpreted, and how they should be applied.
 
We also understand that most development projects involve more than the application of zoning and land development ordinances. Because these projects affect neighborhoods and entire communities, public reaction and political realities are often just as important as the strict wording of an ordinance. We recognize the value of community outreach and consensus-building, and we tailor our strategy to each project’s priorities, whether that means moving quickly, protecting a particular design or capacity, or achieving a specific end result. Our attorneys regularly appear before the Boards of Supervisors, Borough Councils, and Zoning Hearing Boards of dozens of municipalities throughout Bucks County and Eastern Montgomery County, and our relationships with municipal staff and professionals allow us to engage constructively on our clients’ behalf.